A tree, sometimes 30° high, with a tall trunk often 18′ in diameter, covered with dark gray scaly bark, large spreading branches forming a wide symmetrical round-topped head, and stout slightly zigzag branchlets dark orange-green and more or less tinged with red when they first appear, becoming dark chestnut-brown, marked by large dark lenticels and more or less pubescent in their first season, dark red-brown the following year, and armed with stout straight or slightly curved chestnut-brown spines 1′—1½′ long.
Distribution. Meadows in low moist soil near Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
89. [Cratægus submollis] Sarg.
Leaves ovate, acute, gradually narrowed and cuneate at the nearly entire base, coarsely doubly serrate above with straight glandular teeth, and divided into 3 or 4 pairs of short acute lobes, half grown at the end of May or early in June when the flowers open and then roughened above by short stiff pale hairs and soft-pubescent below, particularly on the midrib and veins, and at maturity thin, dark yellow-green and scabrate above, pale below, 3′—3½′ long, and 2′—2½′ wide, with a thick yellow midrib and remote primary veins puberulous on the lower side; petioles stout, nearly terete, more or less winged at apex, tomentose early in the season, becoming puberulous, often bright red toward the base, 1′—2′ in length; leaves at the end of vigorous shoots broad-ovate, cuneate, rounded, truncate, or occasionally slightly cordate at base, often 4′ long and 3′—3½′ wide. Flowers 1′ in diameter, on long slender villose pedicels, in broad many-flowered tomentose corymbs; calyx-tube narrowly obconic, covered with a thick coat of long matted white hairs, the lobes gradually narrowed from a broad base, acute, glandular with large red stipitate glands, glabrous or villose on the outer surface; stamens 10; anthers small, pale yellow; styles 3—5, surrounded at base by a narrow ring of long white hairs. Fruit ripening and falling during the first half of September, on elongated slender slightly villose pedicels, in broad gracefully drooping many-fruited clusters, obovoid, bright orange-red, lustrous, marked by large scattered pale dots, puberulous toward the base, about ¾′ long; calyx much enlarged, with erect coarsely glandular-serrate persistent lobes; flesh yellow, thin, subacid, dry and mealy; nutlets usually 5, rounded and slightly ridged on the back, about ⅓′ in length.
A tree, 20°—25° high, with a tall trunk occasionally a foot in diameter, ascending or spreading ashy gray branches forming a broad handsome head, and branchlets dark green and coated with hoary tomentum when they first appear, light or dark orange-brown and slightly tomentose at midsummer, becoming glabrous, lustrous, and light red-brown or dark orange-brown, and armed with numerous thin straight or somewhat curved bright chestnut-brown shining spines 2½′—3′ in length.
Distribution. Rich damp hillsides and the borders of woods and roads; valley of the St. Lawrence River from the Isle of Orleans westward; Hull County, Province of Quebec; near Ottawa, Ontario; valley of the Penobscot River and Gerrish Island, Maine to the coast of eastern Massachusetts.
90. [Cratægus Ellwangeriana] Sarg.
Leaves oval, acute, rounded or broad-cuneate at the entire base, irregularly divided usually only above the middle into numerous short acute lobes, and coarsely and often doubly serrate above with straight or incurved glandular teeth, about half grown when the flowers open the middle of May, and then roughened above by short pale hairs and villose below on the slender midrib and primary veins, and at maturity thin, light green and scabrate on the upper surface, pale and nearly glabrous on the lower surface, 2½′—3½′ long, and 2′—3′ wide; petioles slender, villose early in the season, finally glabrous, 1½′—2′ in length; stipules oblong-obovate, acute, villose, coarsely glandular-serrate, ½′ long, those of the upper leaves mostly persistent until after the ripening of the fruit. Flowers 1′ in diameter, on short stout hairy pedicels, in many-flowered densely villose corymbs; calyx-tube broadly obconic, villose, the lobes long, lanceolate, glandular with small pale stalked glands, villose on both surfaces; stamens 10, sometimes 8; anthers small, rose color; styles 3—5. Fruit ripening and falling at the end of September, on slender glabrous pedicels, in drooping villose many-fruited crowded clusters, short-oblong, full and rounded at the ends, bright crimson, lustrous, covered at the ends with scattered pale hairs, 1′ long, and ½′—¾′ in diameter; calyx little enlarged, the lobes elongated, glandular-serrate above the middle, villose on the inner surface, spreading, or erect and incurved; flesh thin, yellow, juicy and acid; nutlets 3—5, thick, pale brown, deeply and often doubly and irregularly grooved on the back, ¼′—⅓′ long.